House lawmakers just passed a bill to prevent Florida motorists from involuntarily having their political party affiliation switched while renewing their driver's licenses.
The bill (HB 135) cleared the chamber floor with unanimous support. If approved in the Senate, it will create new safeguards that the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV) must abide by to ensure voters can only switch or leave a political party on purpose.
Highland Beach Rep. Peggy Gossett-Seidman, who sponsored the measure with Delray Beach Rep. Mike Caruso, a fellow Republican, said DHSMV "glitches" may have accidentally deregistered hundreds of thousands of Florida voters from their chosen party.
The problem had to do with DHSMV software that gave motorists seeking new or updated licenses to also update their voter registration. If they didn't re-select their existing party, the system switched them to no-party affiliation (NPA).
An untold number of voters remained unaware of the party switch until they tried casting ballots in a Primary Election and were barred from doing so, according to Gossett-Seidman, who said the issue went uncorrected for the past seven to eight years.
"The glitches have been fixed," Gossett-Seidman said before the House floor vote Monday. But the since-corrected error nevertheless highlighted a need for better guardrails moving forward.
HB 135 and its identical Senate analog (SB 1256) by Fort Myers Republican Sen. Jonathan Martin would, if approved:
— Prohibit DHSMV from using voter registration applications to change an applicant's political party without their written consent.
— Require a separate, original signature and printed receipt confirming a person's consent to changing parties.
— Require DHSMV to document and forward to the Department of State records of party affiliation changes.
— Prohibit DHSMV clerks from encouraging party changes unless the customer has a clear disability and requests assistance.
— Require driver's license examiners who provide voter registration services to ask whether an applicant is registered to vote. If the person is not registered or doesn't know the status of their registration, the examiner must ask whether the person wishes to register to vote and, if the person is registered, whether they want to update their voter registration card. If the person chooses not to disclose that information, the DHSMV employee must make an official note of that decision and forward it to the Department of State.
"This bill's going to … clean up what's been going on," Caruso said, "and allow for our voter rolls to accurately reflect what the voters intended."
Gossett-Seidman, a freshman lawmaker, said she learned of the DHSMV glitch issue on the campaign trail. "Three or four dozen people" told her they were exasperated at being unwillingly booted from their political party and, consequently, the Primary process.
So, she took the issue up with House Speaker Paul Renner, DHSMV Director Dave Kerner and Secretary of State Cord Byrd. All gave her "full support" and a "hard look" at fixing the problem, she said.
She added, "I give them full credit."
HB 135 will now go to the Senate, where SB 1256 awaits a full and final floor vote. The legislation would go into effect upon becoming law.
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